Chapter Text
Marcy Wu has never been a hero.
Sure, she has her games, but even in cnc, she’d rather be the cavern master and let her friends do all the work then actually be a player. She’s never stood up for anyone - not even herself - and had always been helpless, watching her friends fight and fight and fight without the nerve side with either of them, lest the other one walk away from her forever.
She’s not a hero, and really, she’s never particularly minded that much. She’s been content to be Anne’s clumsy, klutzy Marcy, Sasha’s quiet listener. She’s never... thought too hard about it, the way she cowers from the spotlight, except when it’s to feature her puzzles and games rather than her own actions.
Marcy Wu is not strong, and she’s not brave, and she’s not selfless. Not the way that Sasha is. Not the way that Anne is, here, in Amphibia, growing into her own and thriving in a group that’s so different from the one back home, something longing pangs in Marcy’s chest every time she sees them, no matter how happy she is for her friend.
If she were more of a hero, she’d put that completely aside. She’d be able to fit seamlessly into Anne’s new life here, like a piece of a puzzle that had been swept under a rug - or, say, hidden in Newtopia for three months - only to be miraculously found later. She’d woo the Plantars with stories of back home, ones where Anne is the same brave, selfless Anne that they know.
But she’s not brave. She’s selfish. She watches the Plantars and the way Anne chooses them over Sasha, over Marcy, time and time again. What did they do, she wonders sometimes, to deserve Anne’s devotion? What did they do right that Marcy has been falling short of?
She almost hates it, the way that she yearns to be the one that Anne confesses her worries to, late at night during one of their sleepovers. How she watches Anne sometimes, the way she’s grown so confident, so sure of herself, and wonders what it would be like to be at her side, instead of seeing her back off to Frog Valley.
She never imagined that the music box would bring them here. In the moment, she didn’t even think it would work. It had been a foolish fantasy of the girl she used to be, the one that escaped from her parents in every jrpg, every game, every book. The one who ran from her feelings, her emotions, every confrontation she didn’t have the confidence to face.